Monday, May 23, 2011

About 4:00 in the morning, Columbus got hit by a wild storm that left just as quickly as it had come, just in time to take Deena into work (we're only two blocks from the hospital, but I didn't want her walking into any freak storms on the way).

After picking up Mom and taking her to dialysis early this morning, I stayed awake long enough to see the terrifying reports about the tornado strikes in Missouri and Minnesota. I'm so sorry for all the pain and suffering that's struck those states and I pray that their recovery will be swift and sure.

I grabbed some Chinese after picking Mom up later this morning and getting her home, then came back to my place for an hour or so to catch up on "The Event" episodes and "Mike and Molly", then headed over to my church to help my minister Hywel figure out how to change the printers in his Epson printer and how to print CDs and DVDs on it. Of course, when I hit a couple of tough spots getting the set-up done, he started giving me a good-natured ribbing: With my brother Tim there also he spouted off, "Your brother here seems to be completely useless."

We did, however, manage to get the set-ups done and that Welsh ninny can print his buttocks off.

I love my minister. He's an old school Doctor Who fan and absolutely adores the new series.

Now, up until now the skies were as clear as bell, the temperatures were super mild, and I thought, damn, what a beautiful day this is

going to be.

No sooner did I get home than the skies grew dark, lightning struck, the rain poured... and, of course, while I

was working on a project for InConJunction on the computer, the power went out.

We were dark for about an hour and a half, without fresh batteries in anything but the mini-flashlight. The C batteries barely stayed strong enough in the radio to let us hear the current weather updates. So first thing tomorrow I'm stocking up on C, AA, and AAA batteries.

Monday, May 16, 2011

A month later... no Mark and Dee? Yep, I'm a big disappointment. But I will be resuming our tale in the next week or so, as soon as I get a little free time. Right now, I'm working hard on getting some commissioned artwork done and preparations for July's InConJunction, as well as dealing with a bit of sleep apnea. Try doing this and holding down a day job that mostly has you showing up at seven in the morning and not going home until four in the afternoon. Plus taking your mother to kidney dialysis three times a week at 5:30 in the morning.

That's why I look forward to days like today, when I have very little commitment during the day and can work on several projects.

Last Saturday's Doctor Who, while not very much tied to the current arc storyline about the Silence, was a truly moving standalone adventure from the powerful pen of fantasy writer Neil Gaiman, and an insight into the relationship between the Doctor and the true love of his life (lives), the TARDIS.

If you haven't seen this epsiode, we're going into a few spoilers, so you might want to skip a bit downward.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!

Briefly, the Doctor and his friends are lured to a junkyard asteroid in a pocket universe when the Doctor suspects that some Time Lords may still be alive. Unfortunately, the meteor, called "House" (the voice of Michael Sheen) is sentient, and desires to escape the bubble universe before it collapses. Therefore, it manages to possess the TARDIS after drawing out its matrix and placing it in the body of a madwoman named Idris (fabulously played by Coronation Street's Suranne Jones). For the first time, the Doctor is able to talk face-to-face with his beloved time-travel machine and discovers that they were a match made in Heaven over 700 years ago. But their time together is brief, as they have to stop the House-possessed TARDIS with Amy and Rory trapped inside, and her human body is dying...

Dialogue moves very quickly on Doctor Who, and I always have the closed-captioning turned on so I can follow it more easily. I can tell you that I watched this episode at least five times Sunday, absolutely delighted by Gaiman's dialogue and his enthusiasm about exploring a part of the Doctor Who mythos that to now had only been hinted at. The Doctor's final moments with the TARDIS/Idris before things had to go back to normal were simply the most heartbreaking of the season so far. And I felt a great satisfaction in discovering that what I've always said about the TARDIS' wonky steering was absolutely correct: Baby doesn't take where you want, Baby takes you where you need to be.

END OF SPOILERS

Some other great news I got this weekend was that one of my very favortite comic books/comic strips will be back in production and back on the stands at the end of 2011. LibertyMeadows, Frank Cho's hilarious mish mash of soap opera and funny animal antics, has been out of circulation for almost three years now due to its rights being tied up with Sony and the development of a Liberty Meadows cartoon series. The entire enterprise which has certainly put premature grays in Monkeyboy Cho's hair fell through the usual comedy of errors that happens when a studio grabs a potentially valuable property and has no idea what to do with it. I rejoice to hear that all rights have now reverted back to Cho and he can continue to work on the comic book, hopefully starting up from where Brandy broke off her wedding and jumped into Frank Mellish's arms.

I'm currently working on a final draft of the InConJunction schedule for the Doctor Who/Whoosier Network room, which I'm hoping to have something very unique occur on the Saturday afternoon or Sunday schedule. More about it later. Our video programming, besides presenting the original BBC broadcasts of the seven episode half-season this year, will be dedicated to the passing of two beloved Doctor Who actors: the great Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart of UNIT), and, shockingly, Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith). I'm currently editing music video tributes to both of them, and we'll debut them both at InCon this year.

Well, that's enough updating for now. Gotta get back to the job at hand. I'll be back as soon as I'm able.